


All roads lead to you

by throwmetomorrow



Category: X-Men (Movieverse)
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-21
Updated: 2018-07-21
Packaged: 2019-06-14 00:12:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,237
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15376464
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/throwmetomorrow/pseuds/throwmetomorrow
Summary: A short impression on my-verse Charles and Erik's relationship later in their lives. Inspired by the theme "Walking" from the 50 Themes Challenge (https://1sentenceorder.livejournal.com/1531.html).





	All roads lead to you

There came the day when Charles gave up his telepathy in order to really walk again.

Not just temporarily. Not just for the time being, for the purpose of the pain relief, or because the circumstances were such that Charles’ being able to freely move on his own was more instrumental to the well-being of the mutantkind than his reading or manipulating other people’s mind. 

This time, he’d have his gift gone, in a way, for good.

Over the decades of hard work and dedicated study, Hank had greatly improved his serum. The side effects had become rarer and less severe, and the desired results could be achieved through smaller doses, for longer periods. Maybe a month, maybe two, or maybe even half a year, explained Hank with a glimmer in his eyes as he made repeated attempts to convince Charles to at least try this new, improved version of the medicine.

But Charles shied away from that decision for years. Tempting as it would have been to walk again, to be healthy, able-bodied and utterly independent once again, trading his powers for his self-interest was out of the question.

The X-men needed his telepathy. Mutants needed his telepathy. The world needed his telepathy. Period. 

A curse as much as a blessing, telepathy was there to stay.

But then, even more years passed, things happened, and the landscape changed. The mutant world had reached a certain level of safety and stability; the X-men and Brotherhood of Mutants had finally overcome their differences and, recognizing there were more things they had in common than those that separated them, joined forces for the sake of greater good; and, perhaps most importantly, the mutantkind in this part of the world had now new, competent leaders from the young generation in the form of David and Wanda. 

Approaching sixty, with still so much life within him and so much to look forward to, Charles eventually realized the time was ripe for this one huge step of self-interest he had been denying himself half his life. He resigned from the post of the school’s headmaster – the tireless Hank had been long overdue taking over this position, anyway – and he decided to try those new, improved shots of serum that were supposed to help him stand on his own two feet again and more than just literally.

Among all the uncertainties that inevitably accompanied such a life-altering decision, the toughest ones unsurprisingly had to do with Erik.

Because while it did seem like after all the incredible turmoil they had been through – both together and separate – now they finally reached their closest possible approximation of a happy ending, those years of mutual resentment, distrust and underhanded fighting bordering on betrayal had taken its toll on Charles’ perceptions of Erik. 

He knew his Friend by heart – which meant he also knew how unpredictable he was, and with what ease he could transition from ‘I love you’ to ‘I hate you’, from ‘you are my best friend’ to ‘you are my worst enemy’, in mere seconds. 

And among things Erik had the greatest history of hating, there were things such as weakness, cowardice, and humans. 

In the past, Erik had made it clear that he considered Charles’ willingness to sacrifice his powers for the ability to walk again a despicable weakness.

He could also view Charles’ choice to resign from the X-men leadership and pass the baton to the others as mere cowardice, a comfortable escape from his responsibilities.

And worst of all, without his telepathy – even if his powers may have only been temporarily blocked and not permanently undone – Charles was now effectively a mere human. 

So now, with the renewed therapy instantly showing remarkable results, Charles was nervous like a performer before a grand premiere on which their whole career depended upon. Still, he opted to keep the truth behind his invitation secret when he called Erik to meet him in Charles’ office, because he had something important to show him.

And show him he did, asking Erik to stay by the wall at the opposite side of the room, as he slowly got up from the wheelchair and took small, but confident, deliberate steps toward the man who he loved, hated, differed from and related to more than anyone or anything in the world.

Tense but fearless, Charles fixed his steady azure gaze at his Friend’s face, with unspoken words letting him know: This is who I am. Take it or leave it. 

He was utterly amazed to discover that after a few eternity-long moments of bewilderment, Erik’s face lit up with a grin of the width and passion and sincerity he hadn’t seen in him since that faithful _There’s so much more to you than you know, Erik_ training day in that very same mansion thirty years earlier. 

The grin extended right to Erik’s eyes, lighting them up as much as the faint glistening of happy tears did. Erik didn’t even try to conceal them as he took Charles into his arms and pressed him close against his pounding heart, barely able to wait for Charles to cross the imaginary finish line at his feet, truly like a proud parent watching their child learn to walk would.

Then Erik cupped Charles’ face in his hands, rested his forehead on Charles’ and just let them stand there and savor the moment, vulnerable, rejoicing, closer than ever.

Although he remained silent, with his mind – the mind that Charles supposedly was unable to read now – he loudly and clearly returned to Charles the words that had once saved his own life:

_There’s so much more to you than you know, Charles._

Charles’ telepathy may have been gone, but it didn’t stop him from reading Erik’s mind all the same.

Chuckling joyfully as he brushed his lips against Erik’s, Charles interrupted the blissful silence with a coy line intertwined with serious overtones.

“I didn’t think you’d appreciate me being this way, my friend.”

Erik scoffed, frowned, and shook his head before summoning that emotional smile back to his chiseled face.

“I actually like you more this way”, he emphasized, and then he leant toward Charles’ ear, sensually stroking its edge with his lips as he murmured playfully: “No more messing with my mind, too. This can’t be a bad thing”.

With Erik’s strong, stringy hands on his shoulders, an adoring glow warming up the jade green of his eyes, Charles could literally see the relief filling up Erik’s mind, sweeping away all the bitterness of guilt and regret that had been clouding it. 

And the amazing thing was that, again, he didn’t even need his telepathy to be able to do that.

All he needed was his knowledge of Erik, and the strength of the bond they shared, to suddenly become aware how all the hurt he had inflicted on Charles since that day on a Cuba island shore burdened and disabled his soul no less than it burdened and disabled Charles’ legs.

Erik may never put it in words even inside his mind, or say it out loud, but Charles knew how staggeringly grateful he was for fate allowing them to rewind time and rewrite their story like that. He knew it, and he could feel Erik’s feelings precisely like they were his own.

It looked like they could both walk now, together, in more than one way. And leave that long-overdue past behind.


End file.
